1939-45 SECOND WORLD WAR

FLYING OPS ON THE BURMA FRONT

CONVERSATIONS WITH WING COMMANDER HK PATEL (RETD)

Completion of Training and No.6 Squadron

Wg Cdr Patel was selected for flying training and, on completion, was posted to No.6 Squadron IAF during the Arakan Campaign under Squadron Leader ‘Baba’ Mehar Singh. After No. 6 Squadron completed its tour of duty and pulled out of the operational area, Wg Cdr Patel got posted to No.1 Squadron to complete his tour of operations. His final posting during partition was with No.7 Squadron, 'The Battle Axes'. 

Fg Offr HK Patel with a Hawker Hurricane II on the Burma Front.

An Indian forward unit, which came that way, rescued Bhattacharjea. He was extremely badly injured and not expected to live much longer. They bundled him up in some blankets and left him to die in a hut.  A few days later a medical officer visited the forward unit and found Bhattacharjea, surprisingly, still alive with good return pulse etc, but covered in maggots.  Though it was not known to them at the time, the maggots actually helped heal Bhattacharjea's injuries much faster because they would normally eat away the infection and toxins from the wounds. The Medical Officer asked the unit commander to build a katcha airstrip for a small ambulance aircraft to airlift him to a larger airfield. When Bhattacharjea had recovered enough for the doctors to find him an encouraging prospect for survival, he was put on the next Dakota for evacuation to rear lines. 

Bhattacharjea was in a deep coma all this time, and was totally unaware of what had happened to him. While the Dakota was making its flight out of the area, Japanese Oscars attacked it! As the lumbering transport was weaving and turning to escape the Japanese fighters, Bhattacharjea very briefly regained consciousness from his coma, to see that Oscars were attacking his aircraft - again - before he slid mercifully back into oblivion. Somehow, the Dakota managed to shake off its pursuers and Bhattacharjea went to Jorhat military hospital where he remained till he recovered consciousness 6 weeks later.

Members of No.6 Squadron during the visit of Air Marshal Baldwin at Cox Bazar in 1944. L to R 'Massy' Massilamani, Unidentified, Mehar Singh , F/O 'Titch' Hawkins RAF, AVM Baldwin, P/O HK Patel, Unidentified RAF Air Cmde, F/O Murkot Ramunny (Kneeling), F/O LRD 'Creamy' Blunt, USAF Officer, F/L MS Pujji, , USAF Officer, F/O JC 'Bandy' Varma.

One member of 6 Squadron who was a close friend of Wg Cdr Patel was Murkot Ramunny. Described as an 'avid flier', Ramunny flew at every chance he could get. Ramunny was quite short (about 5 feet!) and he had difficulty in landing a Hurricane properly as he could not reach the rudder pedals. Ramunny quit the IAF after the war and joined the Indian Frontier Service (Equiv of IAS in the North East). After a distinguished career in the North-East, he retired to his hometown in Kerala at Telicherry. Murkot Ramunny has authored a book on his World War Two flying days 'The Sky was the Limit'. Even though 87 years old, Ramunny is an avid writer and still takes part in various social activities.

Members of No.6 Squadron brewing 'Chai' after a sortie. Taken during the 2nd Burma Campaign at Cox Bazar. Standing L to R : Massilamani (later CO 7 Sqn and VrC), Aziz, J D Aquino (Later CO 12 Sqn) Sitting L to R : LRD Blunt (Later VrC), HK Patel and JC Varma (DFC)

Wg Cdr Patel offered his recollections at other members of No.6 Squadron.

"There were several 'notables' with No.6 Squadron at that time. Flt Lt MS Pujji was one of the Flight commanders. The Other Flight commanders included Flt Lt Nazirullah Khan and Flt Lt Shivdev Singh.  Later Flt Lt Hassan took Pujji's place.

Then there was Fg Offr Bhullar who was shot down and captured by the Japanese. He later joined the INA of Subhash Chandra Bose. Bhullar survived the fighting and at the end of the war, like many others, he rejoined the IAF. I believe he retired as Group Captain. . I next met him at Jodhpur station after the war. The Japs also shot down Nair. I understand Nair  was tortured because he refused to cooperate with his interrogators and  refused to join the INA.  Fortunately he also survived and rejoined the IAF. Subsequently he left the IAF (story goes he was asked to leave).

All of us referred to each others by Nicknames. Besides "Baba" for Mehar Singh and "Creamy" for Blunt. Massilamani was "Massie" (pronounced Messy), Aziz Khan was "Ausie" and yours truly was "Pat". JC Verma was known as "Bandy". We had a small group of technical tradesmen of the RAF attached to the squadron and out technical officer was also an RAF officer. His name was Hawkins but he was commonly called 'Titch' Hawkin because he was a very short person."

When, No.6 was withdrawn from Operations, Wg Cdr Patel was posted to No.1 Squadron on the Burma front to finish his tour of Ops. On completion of his tour of ops, the third unit with which Wg Cdr Patel served was No.7 Squadron at Miranshah/Peshawar/Kohat

Fg Offr HK Patel with members of No.1 Squadron at Kohat in 1945. Known names in the photo : Top Row Sitting - Stitson and P/O Dilbagh Singh. Bottom Row Sitting - HK Patel, ?,?,?.

Wg Cdr Patel spent some time recollecting about the various aircraft he flew or encountered during his tour of operations. The Hawker Hurricane was the mainstay of the IAF Squadrons that saw action on the Burma Front. Wg Cdr Patel recollects:

Hawker Hurricane of No.1 Squadron at Kohat. Fg Offr Patel is standing on the right. Standing in the center is Kapur, who later became the DGCA.

"The Hurricanes were good for visual and photographic reconnaissance but not upto par as a fighter against the Japanese Oscars and Zeros.  Doing reconnaissance involved flying at "not more that 50ft AGL", simultaneously keeping an eye open for possible targets, jotting notes down on your kneepad etc - not exactly something easy to do!  Even the  RAF Hurricane Sqns (eg No. 28) were not fighter, but recce squadron. In a way, we did get an inferior aircraft in the Hurricane. Witness to this is the fact that we got our Spitfires only towards the end of the war. So we had to make do with what we had."

"We shouldn't forget that the Hurricane was the main strength of the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Spitfires are tops during daytime, Hurricanes at night. Spitfires couldn't fly at night because of its glowing exhausts. Coming into land in the dark the exhausts used to be so blind the pilot that they ultimately had to put shrouds over the exhaust pipes to kill the glow. Beaufighters also accounted for a hell lot of a number of night kills after the Battle of Britain, because they had the Radar Intercept - very elementary, but results came. The Germans did not know - They said because they ate carrots, the eyesight of the Royal Air Force Beaufighter pilots, like John Cunningham, became so good.

Why were the Indian Squadrons like Nos 1, 4 and 6 Sqns given the fighter-reconnaissance role, and other  IAF  units were given fighter-bomber roles,Was there a sense that these were easier roles for the   IAF,  as  compared  to  the  fighter  role, which seemed to be the prerogative of the RAF Units? Was it a case of having necessarily   to  use the Hurricanes, and the RAF not being inclined to give Spitfires to the IAF? Wg Cdr Patel has this to say:

"There was no  question  of   an easier  role  for Indian Pilots.  The  Hurricanes were good for visual and photographic  reconnaissance  but were not unto par as a fighter against the Japanese Oscar  and  Zero fighters.  Doing reconnaissance involved flying at "not more that 50ft  AGL",  and simultaneously casting an eye around for possible targets etc and also jotting notes down on your kneepad. Not exactly something easy to  do!  Even  the  RAF Hurricane Sqns (eg No. 28) was not a fighter, but a recce squadron.

In a sense, we  did  get   inferior  aircraft. Witness that fact that we got our Spitfires  only   towards the end of the war. So we had to make do with what we had."

"In the case of Henry Runganadhan, the young pilot involved in the ramming was flying a Hurricane. And flying over the Desert on a long cross-country leg, Hurricanes had no navigational facilities. No High Frequency Range Finders, no useable instruments till you came within the R/T Range of your airfield. Quite a few airfields did not even have the homing beacons. So normally in such cases a smaller aircraft follows the bigger aircraft, which have the navigational facilities.

After having dropped-off an aircraft, Runganadhan was returning to base from Karachi. He got a lift from Karachi in a Hudson flown by an RAF chap. And during that flight it is very likely that the Hurricane pilot who was following the larger aircraft suffered a temporary or momentary epileptic fit at that time, and rammed into the Hudson's tail, chewing up its control surfaces. Everyone in the Hudson went down.

The younger pilot's Hurricane was also damaged badly. His blades were gone and he came back and made a belly landing. If I recall rightly, this pilot could not recall anything about the collision. Henry Runganadhan was a super flier. He may have had his faults, but he was a superb flier. His wife later on married an Air Force Doctor. That Air Force Doctor's elder brother retired as a General (Shrinagesh).

As for the young pilot who was flying the Hurricane, he still doesn't know what may have caused it. From a Pilot Officer or a Flying Officer, till he became an Air Commodore, nobody knew that he was prone to epilepsy. Perhaps he didn't himself know till very late in life."

"I really don’t blame the pilot who was involved in the Hudson collision. I blame the leadership - like the time I had my Spitfire tail chewed off. The person who was leading the formation took a wrong decision. Normally we all took turns in leading the formation. We planned the patterns, the take off patterns, how we would form up, how we will break formation etc. But this time the leader of the formation said "whoever is closest to me will formate with me first". I said 'you are asking for trouble'. He said no planning. I said it was a blind corner – "you are asking for disaster". I stand by it.

In the cockpit of a Spitfire Mk VIII (Left) and with a Spitfire Mk XIV during 1946 at Kohat (Right)

Then we took off. First part went all right. Formation broke off, and I was number two to him.  And I was a little behind, so I pulled up and formated with him. Mohoney, poor chap, he was lower and a little further away and he didn't see that I had already formated. He was keeping an eye on the leader and trying to pull up into position and he never saw that I was already there. And he pulled up and chewed my tail up.

I don’t know what happened to him as I saw him only on return, but I went into a shallow dive.  I said to myself, tail is all chewed up and there will be no control so I tried to open the Hood - and the Hood jammed. So there was still time and I said, No. I think I can control it. So I pulled out, reduced speed and managed to come back and land. The bottom half of the rudder and the complete right elevator were chewed off totally. I had only half a rudder and an elevator.

And then I see Mohoney already on the ground. The first thing we did was hug each other and then I laid down flat on the ground and kissed mother earth! All the five blades of Mohoney's Spitfire were half their size, all the five blades! But we were close to the airfield, so we made it back. The collision happened at about 4000-5000 feet AGL.

Flying Officer Mohoney, later on the poor chap died in a Tata airlines crash. There was no Indian Airlines at that time. With one Captain Zaria Khan as his second pilot."

Fortunately both HK Patel's Spitfire [RN-199] as well as Mohoney's aircraft [RN-221] were only damaged and not written off. Incidentally Spitfire RN-199 did not survive much longer after the incident. Put back into the air after repairs, it was destroyed in a crash on 21 Feb 47, when Fg Offr Ahmed hit a boundary wall coming into land at Kohat.

TB Scare

There’s another very funny story. I was visiting the Hospital in Ambala for a re-check. At that time Shrinagesh was our medical officer in the school of technical training in Ambala. I was examined again and he put me in a place where there were suspect tuberculosis cases. A day after that I broke down in his presence "Am I suffering from TB that you have put me in this ward?" TB at that time was incurable, you see. He said "Oh you are back?" Immediately I was shifted. Reason was that there were a couple of people who pretended to be suffering from TB there also. One of them was an old friend of Air Marshal Engineer, who joined the ranks and kept on blaming AM Engineer that he "promised me the earth" and he pretended that he was suffering from TB.

Reminiscences  about Old and Bold fliers

There were a number of legendary names that Wg Cdr HK Patel encountered during his service in the Second World War.  Time and space constraints limit us to document his reminiscences about the DFC Winners and close friends.

Jumbo Majumdar DFC and Bar

Wg Cdr Patel served under Jumbo Majumdar during his tour of operations with No.1 Squadron. Jumbo was awarded the DFC for his tour of ops in Burma. The DFC was specific to an incident in which he discovered an enemy airfield and later led operations against it. Jumbo was to subsequently receive a Bar to his DFC. The circumstances on his second DFC were quite unusual. It was always a matter of curiousity for us as to why Jumbo Majumdar went to Europe to do a second tour of Ops and served under a Squadron Leader in a RAF Recce Unit.

Wing Commander HK Patel, has a very interesting anecdote on this query of ours:

When Jumbo was promoted to Wg Cdr he initially refused to take this rank over Mukerjee who was still a Sqn Ldr. I was in Secunderabad when Mukerjee personally flew down there to meet Jumbo who was commanding No.1. Mukerjee persuaded Jumbo to accept the promotion . He said he would be extremely proud if Jumbo did so. Jumbo eventually accepted and took on the rank.  Please note that this (Majumdar's Wg Cdr Rank) was an acting rank.

After this promotion Jumbo was posted to AHQ Delhi where apparently the Brit C-in-C Air Forces in India (I  dont recall his name) made some kind of disparaging remark about how Jumbo got his DFC. This upset Jumbo to the extent that he immediately asked for a return to his substantive rank, and asked for a transfer to Europe so that he could prove his worth (and as the story went in those days, he additionally told this gent that under the circumstances he found it difficult to serve under him).  Which is probably why Jumbo arrived in Europe as a Sqn Ldr and not a Wg Cdr.

Aspy Engineer’s DFC:

So Aspy signals the Ground. Did they want anything? Was all OK?. If everything was all right that was one signal, if they wanted ammunition that was another signal, if they wanted medical aid that was something else. The crew read, "We are short of ammunition". At that time the .303 was the standard weapon for Rifles, for Machine guns as well as the machine guns in the aircraft. So he ordered the chappie in the back, with the gun, "Remove all your ammunition and take off your socks," and he took off his socks as well. They stuffed the aircraft ammunition in their stockings (in those days you used to fly in stockings and shorts, no flying overalls), and dropped their ammunition to the troops below, thus saving the day. For this he got the DFC.

Then Narendra, I don’t think he commanded a squadron in Burma like you mentioned in your page. Just check. At least not on the Burma front. Aspy never flew in Burma.

Squadron Leader Prithipal Singh. - This incident was really in Miranshah. With the Wapitis..or Audaxes, I dont know for sure… This is the story that I heard. It happened when they were loading the bombs onto the wing racks. And one bomb, while still being fixed on the rack just came down. People ran helter-skelter waiting for it to go off but he just stood there. (He) Called them back. "Put it there". He was a fine officer. A little hoity-toity, uppish and all that. Again, he was a Cranwell trainee. But he was a good flier. And sometimes good fliers. they get killed. And lousy ones like me survive

The Hurricane pilots of No.6 Squadron used thier oblique facing cameras to take pictures of themselves flying. This photograph of Fg Offr Patel flying the Hurricane over Burma in 1944 was taken by Fg Offr PS Gupta DFC.

P S Gupta is one chappie who didn't even know that he had got the DFC. He died on the very day that it was announced. Very handsome boy, very handsome boy. The Squadron was moving out at that time. He, along with Flt Lt H N Chatterjee DFC, the Flight Commander, Squadron Leader Rajaram, all took off and got lost in clouds. There was no turning back because there was no more fuel left at the airfield. They were completely evacuating Manipur. And he got into clouds, probably got disoriented and crashed thereafter.

See, even when you are flying light aircraft you normally don’t go by instruments alone. It’s only on Multi Engine aircraft or fighter aircraft that you have to learn and to practice. But how the hell can you practice during war?  And you’ve got to learn not only to interpret but also to rely on your instruments. You can’t fly in bad weather by the seat of your pants. For example the diffused light of the sun is here (indicating 2 O Clock on vertical plane), but your natural instinct is to think that the sun should be in this position (indicating 12 O Clock) so you turn (bank) right to correct. That’s the end of it. Because of the refraction in the cloud. you cant see anything outside. You don’t realise where the sun position is. You must maintain your attitude. So if you turn to get the sun on top of you or in front of you, you try to follow your instinct instead of your instruments, it never works out.

K N Kak got his DFC in No.1 Squadron; Minoo Bulsara got it in No.1 Squadron.  Bulsara was a good flier, and throughout the operations he had an incident free record, a good flier, a good observer to bring back information. Because you see now, we were cooperating with the Army. Our main job was to locate the enemy, sometimes locate your own troops, rather than fight. And sometimes when you have a target, shoot it up.

M S Pujji, Pujji got his DFC in an earlier squadron although he was in 6 Squadron. Somehow he was one of the few Sikhs who could not get along with Mehar Singh. He was a Sardar but both could not get along. It’s like two Parsi’s. There’s a saying "Parsi tari arsi". It means that when two Parsi’s meet they fight; and when a Parsi is alone, he looks into the mirror and fights with himself!

Shitoley, Surendra, Chatterjee all got their DFCs with 1 Sqn.

Minoo - I don’t recall but I think he got his with 4 Squadron.

They don’t come much better than Ronnie Engineer. Ronnie was a superb, absolutely superb natural born flier, a superb leader, a superb friend, and a superb comrade. Later on he had to leave the Air Force, because one of his squadron commanders, leading a formation of Canberras to attack Karachi, came back without completing the mission. Jettisoned his bombs en-route. This was in the 65 war. He was station commander at Poona at that time. Ronnie was made the scapegoat - scapegoat in the sense that it’s the commander who ultimately takes the rap.

H D Barucha, who got his AFC, got it when he was with the Royal Air Force. D F Eduljee who got the AFC died in operations. He was an instructor. and as an instructor, he got an AFC. I remember his death; he was making multiple passes at a ground target. During one of them he was coming out of a roll quite close to the ground, misjudged it and flew straight in.

I am not in touch with Ramunny, he must be in his late 80s. He was a dear friend of mine. Absolutely a gentleman par excellence.  Both Cecil Naire and Ramunny left around the same time. They never met because normally one took over from the other.  And both of them were in different areas. When one was in the Arabian Sea, the other one was in Nagaland. That sort of thing.  Cecil Naire spoke English like an Englishman , French like a Frenchman. He was a B. Sc from the Travancore University. He used to teach Physics, Chemistry and Maths to the science students, and English and French to the Arts students. And till the last day in the Air Force he had a lien on that job. But he accepted Permanent Commission and gave up that job.  I have lost touch with him. He was probably contracting Alzheimers when I met him last in Calicut in ‘95."

Just before we broke off for lunch, we went thru the photograph collection of Wg Cdr Patel, which had some rare and excellent pictures from the WW2 era. Wg Cdr Patel also showed us a rare WW2 publication on the Indian Air Force which can be classified as a rare collector's item. That publication was an historian’s delight, with photographs of IAF DFC awardees and photographs from the front-line - it was probably published just after WW2.

With his good mate "Slim" Sheikh, NWFP 1947. Fg Offr Patel had a crash in a Spitfire soon after and was lying in Hospital in Karachi when Independence Came.  'Slim' arranged to have all his belongings meticulously sent back home. Slim opted to join the PAF and Patel never got to thank him or see him again, a source of great regret for him.

Predicting Ayub Khan's future

Wg Cdr Patel mentioned an anecdote from that time where he met  Mohammad Ayub Khan, who would later become President of Pakistan and  the self-appointed Field Marshal of the Pakistani Army.

An Army formation in NWFP had requested the presence of an IAF officer for Air Force liaison work at a brigade-level exercise . As the designated officer could not, or did not want to make it there, Fg Offr Patel was asked to report for the exercises. He arrived at the Officers’ Mess to find it totally deserted. In walked Lt Col (acting rank) Md Ayub Khan, who was flabbergasted to see that the Air Force had actually sent an officer for the exercises! They had been so used to having their requests ignored all this time that they did not expect Fg Offr Patel to actually arrive!! Within a short while, it was abundantly clear that both had sruck an instant rapport. During the course of the conversation, Fg Offr Patel mentioned that he had some knowledge and interest in palmistry, Ayub Khan could not resist extending his hand to find out about his future, and asked Fg Offr Patel to examine his 'future' and tell him what was in store for him.

Patel looked at Ayub Khan's hand , looked up and told him "I can tell that one day you will be King.". Patel continued, "Not only become a King, but you will also get dethroned!".  This statement would have some interesting repercussions later! 

It so happened that at the Brigade-level exercises, Ayub Khan's battalion out-performed the other two battalions of the Brigade. Both the other two Lt Col's had to face a dressing-down from the Brigade commander on their poor showing.  The Brigadier then praised Ayub for his good show and congratulated him. Apparently, when Patel also congratulated Ayub and mentioned the word of praise from the Brigadier, Ayub responded saying that he didn't trust the Brigadier and that he would back-stab Ayub at the first opportunity he got!

After a few months, Fg Offr  Patel was at another exercise, when a loud voice hailed him from behind " HEY YOU!". Patel turned back and immediately recognized him as Ayub Khan. Ayub Khan growled at Patel "Aren't you the one who told me that one day I would be a KING?" . When Patel saw Ayub Khan's badges of rank, he instantly realised the irony of his prediction - Ayub Khan was wearing the crowns of a major - one rank below what he had held during their previous meetings! Patel's second prediction of Ayub being dethroned had already occurred!.

What exactly had happened? The brigade commander, while praising Ayub Khan in front of the British Lt Cols, had done exactly as Ayub had predicted. Ayub Khan had never taken leave in his four years of wartime service.  He was asked to go for the maximum amount of leave ( 48 days?) that could be availed at that time and when he came back from that leave, he was shocked to find a British Lt Col sitting in his chair at battalion HQ.

When Ayub was on leave, since there was a rule that no one holding an acting rank could hold it for more than a specified amount of time which was exceeded by the period of leave that Ayub had availed. Another Lt Col was bought in as CO and the Brigadier covered up Ayub's demotion by saying he wanted a good officer like Ayub as a Brigade Major at his HQ!

Later Ayub Khan was to become the Chief of the Pakistani Army and later the President of Pakistan. The  the 'prediction' had finally come true. Wg Cdr Patel never did contact Ayub Khan after he became President, though he recollects rather wistfully that he should have written to Ayub Khan reminding him of their earlier encounter.

Injured in a Spitfire Crash

When we broke off for lunch at a nearby restaurant, the discussions continued on his stint with No.7 Squadron. Wg Cdr Patel was still a Flying Officer in May 1947, when he had another crash while flying  a Spitfire XIV on a cross-country from Miranshah to Karachi. The crash landing resulted in multiple injuries. Because of the main head injury, there is not much that Wg Cdr Patel remembers other than taking off. What he does remember is that that particular aircraft had abnormally high fuel consumption, and that he had aborted the flight the day before for that very reason. On the day of the crash, he had not carried a map, had run short of fuel (ironically not too far from the airfield) and had attempted a belly landing in a field.

The book Spitfire International records this crash as having occurred on 22nd May 1947 involving Spitfire XIV Serialled RN-220. The cause of the accident is given as fuel starvation and subsequent belly landing at Shikarpur

It was about the time he was in Hospital, that the CO of NO.7 Sqn Ldr Madan Lal Mishra died in a jeep accident. Sqn Ldr Mishra (See Kuriyan's 'Partition Troubles') was known for his drinking and partying. While the Squadron pilots were speeding in a jeep after a late night binge to celebrate the return of another injured pilot back on duty, the jeep overturned injuring several officers and killing Sqn Ldr Mishra.

Due to the injuries from the Spitfire crash, Wg Cdr Patel missed going with 7 Squadron on the J and K Ops in 1948 under Masillamani. Wg Cdr Patel later went to the JSW in Dehradun, the precursor to the NDA.

Next: Independence and the 1962 India China War

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